As the great difficulty was to explain the publication of Swift's letters to Pope, this change supplied a very important link in the evidence.

It implied that Swift had been at some time in possession of the letters in question, and had trusted them to some one supposed to be safe.

The whole paragraph, meanwhile, appears, from the unimpeachable evidence of Mrs.Whiteway, to have involved one of the illusions of memory, for which he (Swift) apologizes in the letter from which this is extracted.

By insisting upon this passage, and upon certain other letters dexterously confounded with those published, Pope succeeded in raising dust enough to blind Lord Orrery's not very piercing intelligence.

The inference which he desired to suggest was that some persons in Swift's family had obtained possession of the letters.